The decline in gun deer license sales is seen by most as a continuation of decades-long demographic shifts as well as a recent change in the state's crossbow hunting law.

Wisconsin gun deer license sales peaked at 699,275 in 1990 and have followed a general decline as fewer state residents participate in hunting and the aging ranks of existing hunters are buffeted by attrition.

Some deer hunters, too, may be opting to buy a crossbow license instead of a gun license. Since 2014, Wisconsin has offered a crossbow deer season for all hunters that is many times longer than the gun season and includes the peak of the rut, or deer mating season. Sales of bow and crossbow licenses are a combined 286,578 in 2016, a slight increase from last year and highest on record.

Of the state’s management regions, only the northern forest showed a harvest increase this year.

Regionally, the deer kill was 111,484 (down 4% from 2015) in the central farmland, 44,891 (down 7%) in the southern farmland, 32,400 (up 21%) in the northern forest and 8,010 (down 2%) in the central forest.

Of note, hunters registered 30% more bucks this year in the northern forest, an indication the deer herd is recovering after two consecutive mild winters and several years of “buck only” rules in many counties.

Buck harvest is used as a leading indicator by the DNR as it evaluates deer population trends.

"The harvest is never uniform just as deer densities aren't uniform, but overall it is encouraging to see the increase in the northern counties, and statewide harvest levels similar to last year,” DNR big game ecologist Kevin Wallenfang said in a statement.

Marathon County had the most deer registered (7,663), with Waupaca (7,328) and Shawano (6,701) rounding out the top three counties.